Method of remotely changing operating characteristics of a communications device

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method of remotely changing operating characteristics of a communications device selected for signaling an incoming message or cal to a user. To allow signaling an urgent incoming message or call to a user even if the device to be called is in a mute state, the method comprises the steps of: transmitting control data from a calling device (MS 1 ) to a device (MS 2 ) to called; changing a group of operating characteristics of the device (MS 2 ) to be called in accordance with the transmitted control data; and signaling an incoming message or call in accordance with the operating characteristics set up in the previous step.

The present invention relates to a method of remotely changing operatingcharacteristics of a communications device.

It is well-known in the art that operating characteristics of acommunications device, in particular of a telephone can be selected forsignaling an incoming message or call. In particular, almost all today'stelephones provide the possibility of adjusting the volume and thetimbre or tone color of the ringing tone so that a user of a telephonecan choose the quality of the ringing tone.

In addition, as described in EP 0 611 070 A2 the operatingcharacteristics of a mobile telephone such as the volume of an outputsignal, the volume of the ringing tone, and the generation of tones canbe modified so that the mobile telephone can be conveniently used in anyenvironment. In order to facilitate the modification of the plurality ofoperating characteristics a plurality of profiles or groups are definedfor these characteristics. Each profile or group includes predeterminedvalues of all these operating characteristics and the selection of aparticular profile or group results in a plurality of operatingcharacteristics being modified simultaneously.

Thus, when moving from one environment to another a user only have tomake a single menu selection resulting in a plurality of operatingcharacteristics being modified simultaneously.

EP 1 117 245 A1 discloses a method that enables a calling telephone tochoose a ringing indication to be plaid and/or shown at a receivingtelephone. For choosing a ringing indication the user of the callingtelephone first selects a ringing indication from a data file.Thereafter the user enter the telephone number to place a call to adesired telephone. During building up the connection or circuit from thecalling telephone to the called telephone the selected ringingindication is send to the called telephone that is activated in a mannerof the ringing indication that was selected by the calling user athis/her telephone.

Further, ringing indication (sound and/or visual) can be predefined by auser in accordance with the class of an incoming call. To remotelychoose the ringing indication intended to be used with a specific classof calls the calling user has to assign the call a class when placing acall. Thus, a call class information is send to the telephone to becalled and there predefined ringing indication is selected in accordancewith the call class information for signaling the incoming call.

Therefore, it is possible for a user of a telephone to select specificringing indications for specific call classes, for example officialcalls, private calls, urgent calls, standard calls and the like so thatthe signaling of the call indicates the call to the telephone userdefined the different ringing indications for different call classes.

Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 6,297,726 B1 discloses a radio pagingreceiver that can be operated in two modes. In a first mode the pageractivates light and sound alarms for indicating an incoming messageregardless of who the caller is. In a second, password select mode, thepager activates the light and sound alarms only for callers who havetransmitted a password with there messages to the pager. Therefore, itis possible to discriminate among those callers who have the passwordtransmitted, only activating both the light and sound alarms whenpre-selected callers are detected as transmitting a message to thepager. If a message from a caller whose is not selected is received onlythe light alarm is activated and the message is displayed.

Hence, it is already known to select one of two message signaling modesin dependence on a received password indicating that the calling partyis allowed or not to cause a specific priority signaling mode.

In addition, WO 97/32439 discloses a terminal for a communicationsnetwork, the terminal being capable of supporting a plurality ofapplications and having means of communicating user messages. Inparticular, the terminal comprises means for receiving user messageshaving data and a header relating to one of the applications and meansfor addressing the data of a received message to a respectiveapplication according to the header. The messages that can becommunicated by this known terminal are short messages and/or so calledsmart messages.

Short messages, that are called hereinafter SMS, are messages accordingto the Short Messaging Service standard. Smart messages are a specialkind of SMS the header of which includes information about how to usethe information of the data portion. Enhanced messages, that are calledhereinafter EMS, are messages according to the Enhanced MessagingService standard. Multi media messages called hereinafter MMS aremessages according to the Multi Media Messaging Service standard.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object underlying the present invention is to provide another methodof remotely changing operating characteristics of a communicationsdevice, that allows signaling an urgent incoming message or call to auser even if the device to be called is in a mute state.

This object is achieved by a method comprising the steps of transmittingcontrol data from a calling device to a device to be called; changing agroup of operating characteristics of the device to be called inaccordance with the transmitted control data; and signaling an incomingmessage or call in accordance with the operating characteristics set upin the previous step.

According to the present invention it is possible to change over fromone group of operating characteristics to another one to switch acommunications device, in particular a mobile telephone e.g. from a mutestate to a state in which incoming calls and messages are acousticallysignaled to the user. By switching over the complete group of operatingcharacteristics it is possible not only to change the loudness of aringing tone but the ringing tone itself so that the degree of urgencycan be indicated, too, by the ringing tone of the selected group.

In addition, instead of switching to a profile or group of operatingcharacteristics with a loud ringing tone, it is also possible to switchto a profile with low ringing volume if the called party shall not bedisturbed unnecessarily.

Furthermore, the method according to the present invention can be usedfor messages, e.g. facsimile, SMS, MMS, EMS or the like, which are sentto a mobile telephone or station, too. In this case remotely switchingto another profile or group of operating characteristics can be used forunderlining the importance of the message sent. On the other hand,profile switching can be applied for switching to a profile including aringing tone that has a low volume or is mute, in case that therecipient shall not be disturbed.

Preferably the control data is transmitted via a signaling channel as amessage including at least a header and a data portion. Thus, using thesignaling channel facilitates implementing the present invention incommunications devices since it is just necessary to implementrespective applications in both the calling devices and the devices tobe called without any change of the network standards and/or protocols.

According to a preferred refinement of the present invention the controldata comprises an indication which application can interpret theincluded command information.

Advantageously the control data comprises identification data indicatingthat the calling party is authorized to remotely change operatingcharacteristics of the device to be called.

This feature ensures that only a very selected number of people can beauthorized by the user of the communications device to be called tochange operating characteristics in cases requiring immediate action orattention.

Preferably, the operating characteristics of the device to be calledinclude remote switching enable/disable data comprising positioning dataand/or time data indicating locations and/or time periods where and/orwhen remote changing of a profile or a group of operatingcharacteristics has to be allowed or not, and changing of the group ofoperating characteristics of the device to be called according to thetransmitted control data is performed only if remote switching isenabled with regard to the actual position and/or time. Thus, the userof a mobile telephone can determine locations and time periods where andwhen profile changing or switching is prevented. So he/she can decidewhere, e.g. at home, and when, e.g. at night, he/she does not wish bedisturbed by incoming messages or calls.

Specifically, the active group of operating characteristics is changedto a standard group of operating characteristics.

According to another refinement of the present invention the activegroup of operating characteristics is changed to a group specified inthe received control data if available otherwise to a default group.Therefore, it is possible that the people of a private or business groupor team agreed to a specific group of operating characteristics providedin their communications devices so that the user of a communicationsdevice called can recognize that a person of specific group or team iscalling when the incoming call or message is signaled according to thegroup of operating characteristics that was agreed beforehand by thegroup instead of being signaled in accordance with the operatingcharacteristics activated by the user.

Additionally, the control data includes loudness setting data; and theloudness value of a ringing tone is set to desired value.

For placing a call instead of sending an important message only it ispreferred that an acknowledging message is sent back from the device tobe called to the calling device. This is to ensure that an urgent callwill be acoustically signaled to the user to be called.

According to another development of the present invention it is providedthat the active group of operating characteristics is changed backautomatically after completing the call or after signaling an incomingcall or message to that group of operating characteristics that wasactive prior to the change of operating characteristics remotelyinitiated.

Alternatively, the active group of operating characteristics is changedback to said group of operating characteristics that was active prior tothe change of operating characteristics remotely initiated uponreceiving reset data from the calling device.

According to another aspect of the present invention the method ofremotely changing operating characteristics of a communications devicecomprises the steps of transmitting control data from a calling deviceto a device to be called; and switching off the called device inaccordance with switch off data included in the received control dataafter checking whether or not switching off has to be allowed by meansof checking a password.

This method makes it possible that a communications device can beswitched off remotely in case that the device was lost or stolen toprevent unauthorized use of such a communications device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram showing a communications systemfor use with the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a simplified schematic block diagram of a mobile station;and

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram illustrating remotely changingoperating characteristics during placing a call.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to FIG. 1 a radio communications network, in particular aradio communications network having a cellular structure comprises aplurality of base stations BS1, BS2, . . . each of which is connectedwith a radio network center comprising a short message service centerSMSC for signaling purposes. Further, a plurality of mobile stationsMS1, MS2, . . . are provided as subscriber terminals of the radiocommunications network.

As shown in FIG. 2 each mobile station MS comprises a RF-portion 11 forreceiving/transmitting information via an air interface, a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 12 for controlling the operation of the mobilestation, and a user interface 13 having a display 14, a key pad 15, anaudio input 16 like a microphone and an audio output 17 likeloudspeaker. Further, it is possible that a mobile station MS comprisesa vibrating unit 18. For controlling the output means, i.e. forcontrolling the display 14, the loudspeaker 17 and the vibrating means18 respective driving means, i.e. a display driver 19, a loudspeakerdriver 20 and a vibrating means driver 21 are provided.

To adapt the operating characteristics of a mobile station, inparticular the operating characteristics for signaling an incomingmessage or call to the environment where the mobile stations is actuallyused it is possible to adjust the different output means 14, 17, 18 byrespectively controlling the corresponding drivers 19, 20, 21. Althoughthe drivers 19, 20, 21 are shown as separate circuit elements of themobile station MS these elements can be also integrated in the centralprocessing 12 unit and/or can be established as software applications.

For placing a call a user of a mobile station usually inputs a phonenumber or select it from a phone book and actuates a specific key forstarting call setup.

After call setup the incoming call is signaled to the called mobilestation MS2 via a respective signaling channel that can be used also fortransmitting messages like SMS, EMS, MMS or the like. When the calledmobile station MS2 recognizes the incoming call it is signaled to theuser by using all or some of the different available output means inaccordance with the operation characteristics selected for each of theoutput means. For example the display 14 is flashing, a ringing tone isoutput via the loudspeaker 19 with a certain loudness and/or the mobilestation MS is vibrating due to the operation of the vibrating means 18.

However, in certain environments, i.e. in a conference or a theater theloudspeaker is usually switched off, so that only the display isflashing and/or the vibrating means are vibrating. Further, a calltransfer function can be activated so that the call is transferred to anautomatic answering center so that the calling party can leave a messagefor the called party.

If an urgent message should be send to someone owning a mobile stationwith activated mute profile, i.e. a group of operating characteristicsexcluding any sound output it is possible that the owner of the mobilestation that receives this urgent message will not recognize theincoming message immediately. Further, if an urgent call is received itwill be signaled only for a very short time and then transferred to acall answering center.

However, according to the present invention it is possible that thecalling party sends a message, for example an SMS, a so called smartmessage, an EMS or an MMS, including control data for changing the groupof operating characteristics, i.e. the activated profile, to switch theactive profile into a general or specific profile. In addition, thecontrol data may include not only data for switching the active profileinto a general or specific profile but also for setting the sound volumeto a specific high value, for example to 4/5 of the maximum volume orlouder and/or the ringing tone to maximum ringing.

Thus, according to the present invention it is possible to switch theactive profile of a mobile station remotely for urgent cases. Therefore,members of a predefined group or team could signaling or calling eachother by using remote profile switching. Further, the inventive methodcan be used to find a displaced phone which is in a mute state since itcan be remotely switched over in a loud state prior to calling it.Further, the importance of a message or a call can be stressed by usingthe standard or specific profile instead of the active profile inparticular instead of the mute profile. Further, to prevent misuse ofthe inventive method it is preferred that the message sent from thecalling mobile station to the called mobile station includes a securitypassword that is checked after receiving the message but prior toperforming profile switching. Therefore, only the messages includingsuch a password will be executed automatically, so that only authorizedpersons, who know the password could switch the active profile of thereceiving mobile station. In this way members of one team could agree onone common password so that in urgent cases a team member can send orbroadcast a message including control data, for example an extendedsmart message to other team members to draw their attention to theurgent case happened.

Furthermore, according to the present invention it is provided that eachmobile station can handle several passwords so that the owner of themobile station who could belong to different teams or groups can bereached by all team members of teams even if each team agreed on havingits own password without considering the password of other groups. Inthis case it is also possible for a user to select one or more or all ofthe passwords to restrict the number of persons who are allowed todisturb him in urgent cases.

Furthermore, the operating characteristics of the device (MS2) to becalled includes remote switching enable/disable data comprisingpositioning data and/or time data indicating locations and/or timeperiods where and/or when remote changing of a profile or a group ofoperating characteristics has to be allowed or not. Therefore it ispossible for a user to select locations, e.g. at home, and/or timeperiods, e.g. at night, where and when she/he does not want to bedisturbed. On the other hand, such positioning data and/or time data canbe used to define positively when and where she/he will be available forher/his team colleagues and/or friends in urgent cases. Consequently, incase that remote switching enable/disable data are set by the user, theactual position data and/or time data are compared with the data set andchanging of the profile or the group of operating characteristics of thedevice (MS2) to be called according to the transmitted control data isperformed only if remote switching is enabled with regard to positionand/or time.

The position of the mobile station can be determined by several methodswell known in the art. In case that the mobile station is equipped witha GPS (Global Positioning System) module the data received by thismodule can be used. However, if no such module is available theinformation about the actual cell of a cellular system where the mobilestation is currently located can be used. Furthermore, one of the knowncellular positioning methods such as the E-OTD (Enhanced Observed TimeDifference) method can be used as an alternative to the methodsmentioned before.

The inventive method will now be explained in more detail with referenceto FIG. 3.

In case that the user of a first mobile station MS1 wants to call theuser of another mobile station MS2 for an urgent case a first message,for example an EMS including control data for changing the profile issend from the mobile station MS1 to a first base station BS1 in stepS10. The EMS is then forwarded from the base station BS1 to a shortmessage service center SMSC in step S11. The short message servicecenter sends in step S12 the EMS to that base station BS2 near which thecalled mobile station MS2 is located. After receiving the EMS forwardedby the second base station BS2 in step S13 the password is checked inthe called mobile station MS2 and in case that it is valid profilechange is performed in accordance with the control data included in theEMS. After changing the group of operating characteristics of the mobilestation MS2 for signaling an incoming call, the mobile station MS2transmits in step S14 another message that acknowledges the receipt ofthe first EMS. This acknowledging message is then successively forwardedby the base station BS2 (step S15), the short message service centerSMSC (step S16) and the first base station (step S17) to the callingmobile station MS1. It is also possible to use a message according toanother standard instead of EMS.

Thereafter, a call setup request is send to the base station BS1 thatperforms together with the radio network center and the second basestation BS2 call setup so that the incoming call is signaled to thecalled mobile station MS2 in the usual way. After receiving theinformation indicating an incoming call the mobile station MS2 signalsthe incoming call to its user in accordance with the operationcharacteristics set due to the previously received control data. Afteraccepting the call exchange of speech data during the call andcompleting the call is performed in the usual way.

At last, after completing the call another EMS is send from the callingmobile station MS1 to called mobile station MS2 in the same way as thefirst message for resetting that profile of the mobile station MS2 thatwas active before the first profile change. However, in this case noacknowledging message sent back from mobile station MS2 to mobilestation MS1 is necessary.

Please note that the call setup request is sent from the calling mobilestation MS1 only after receiving the acknowledging message EMS in stepS17. In this way it is ensured that the called mobile station MS2 isable to indicate an incoming call in the desired way to a user of thesecond mobile station MS2.

The inventive method of remotely changing operating characteristics of acommunications device is integrated into such communication devices, inparticular, in mobile stations or mobile phones as a specificapplication. This application includes a dialog oriented user interfaceoperation to guide the user through several steps. It is based on twomain parts, i.e. a password data base management and a profile (group ofoperating characteristics) or state changing. The latter one comprisesthe possibility of switching off the mobile station, of remotelychanging profile and/or loudness and initiating a call and resetting theprofile or loudness.

In more detail, the password data base management allows the user tosafe a new password for profile exchange, i.e. remotely changingoperating characteristics of another mobile station, and to deleteand/or to add an existing password. Each password entry is based on twoelements, i.e. the password itself and a nickname or identifier toidentify the password (e.g. my project).

Upon activating the password data base management, the user will beasked to select one of menu entries, e.g. NEW, EDIT or DELETE. Afterselecting NEW, the user will be asked to enter a nickname and apassword. After selecting DELETE, the user will be asked to mark thepassword entry to be deleted by using arrow or scrolling keys or thelike. After selecting EDIT the user will be asked to select the passwordentry to be edit. Thereafter the user can edit the password and thecorresponding nickname.

After activating the second main part, i.e. profile/state changing theuser will be asked to enter a phone number or to search for one in anintegrated phone book of the mobile station. Thereafter, the user willbe asked to enter the corresponding password or to select a password outof the passwords available in a corresponding password data base. Thisprocedure can be directly linked with the password management part sothat the password entries can be read and presented as a list to theuser so that she can select a desired password from such a list usingthe corresponding nickname for identifying the searched password.

After identifying a specific mobile station by entering a telephonenumber and after inputting a corresponding password the user will beasked to enter one of the following commands: SWITCH-OFF, PROFILE_XXXand LOUDNESS_X. XXX can be modified by the user to specify the name of adesired profile so that it is not necessary to automatically switch overto the standard group of operating characteristics but to a specificgroup. X indicates the loudness level of the ringing tone.

Thereafter the application sends a specific message including thepassword and the desired command to the called mobile station MS2 asdescribed above.

Sending the desired level of loudness in addition to the profile name isbeneficial for the case that the desired profile is not available on theremote mobile device, i.e. on the called mobile station.

For ease of applying the inventive method the header part of themessage, i.e. an SMS, a smart message, an EMS or an MMS, includesinformation to indicated that this message can be interpreted by theprofile switching application which should be available on the remotedevice so that the received message is automatically forwarded to theprofile switching application.

Availability of this profile switching application that is workingaccording to the inventive method is assumed in the following.

On the receiving side the profile switching application reads theincoming message and interprets its content and reacts as follows. Ifthe password is correct the received command is allowed to be executed.Therefore, the mobile station is turned off immediately if the receivedcommand is SWITCH-OFF. This feature is convenient for cases where themobile station got lost or was stolen so that it can not be used byunauthorized person. In case that the received command is PROFILE_XXXthe mobile station MS2 is switched to the desired profile if availableotherwise it is switched to the profile general or standard. Accordingto the received signal LOUDNESS_X the loudness level of a ringing toneis turned to X. In addition, in the second and third case anacknowledgment is sent to the mobile station MS1 requesting remoteprofile switching.

In the first case the profile switching application of the callingmobile station MS1 waits on the acknowledgment of the remote mobilestation, i.e. the called mobile station. However, in case that theacknowledgment message is not received within a reasonable predefinedtime slot (e.g. 1 minute) the application initiates the call.

After finishing the call in case that a call could be established, theapplication sends a message dedicated to the profile switch applicationof the remote mobile station MS2 to reset its profile to the originalone as mentioned above.

1. A method of remotely changing operating characteristics of acommunications device selected for signaling an incoming message or callto a user; comprising the steps of: a device (MS2) to be called,receiving control data; changing a group of operating characteristics ofthe device (MS2) to be called in accordance with the transmitted controldata; and signaling an incoming message or call in accordance with theoperating characteristics set up in the previous step.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1 characterized in that the control data istransmitted via a signaling channel as a message including at least aheader and a data portion.
 3. The method according to claim 1characterized in that the control data comprises an indication of whichapplication can interpret the included command information.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1 characterized in that the control datacomprises identification data indicating that the calling party isauthorized to remotely change operating characteristics of the device(MS2) to be called.
 5. The method according to claim 1 characterized inthat the operating characteristics of the device (MS2) to be calledincludes remote switching enable/disable data comprising positioningdata and/or time data indicating locations and/or time periods whereand/or when remote changing of a profile or a group of operatingcharacteristics has to be allowed or not, and changing the group ofoperating characteristics of the device (MS2) to be called according tothe transmitted control data is performed only if remote switching isenabled with regard to position and/or time.
 6. The method according toclaim 1 characterized in that the active group of operatingcharacteristics is changed to a standard group of operatingcharacteristics.
 7. The method according to claim 1 characterized inthat the active group of operating characteristics is changed to a groupspecified in the received control data if available otherwise to adefault group.
 8. The method according to claim 7 characterized in thatthe control data includes loudness setting data; and the loudness valueof a ringing tone is set to desired value.
 9. The method according toclaim 13 characterized in that an acknowledging message is sent backfrom the device (MS2) called to the calling device (MS1).
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1 characterized in that the active group of operatingcharacteristics is changed back automatically after completing the callor after signaling an incoming call or message to that group ofoperating characteristics that was active prior to the change ofoperating characteristics remotely initiated.
 11. The method accordingto claim 1 characterized in that the active group of operatingcharacteristics is changed back to said group of operatingcharacteristics that was active prior to the change of operatingcharacteristics remotely initiated upon receiving reset data by thedevice (MS2) to be called.
 12. A method of remotely changing operatingcharacteristics of a communications device, comprising the steps of adevice (MS2) to be called receiving control data; and switching off thedevice (MS2) to be called in accordance with switch off data included inthe received control data after checking whether or not switching offhas to be allowed by means of checking a password.
 13. The methodaccording to claim 1 characterized in that the control data is receivedvia an air interface and in particular from a calling device (MS1). 14.A computer program product for remotely changing operatingcharacteristics of a communications device selected for signaling anincoming message or call to a user, comprising program code sections forcarrying out the steps of claim 1, when said program is run on aprocessor-based devices communications device, a mobile phone, mobilestation, or a subscriber terminal of a radio communications network. 15.A computer program product for remotely changing operatingcharacteristics of a communications device selected for signaling anincoming message or call to a user, comprising program code sectionsstored on a machine-readable medium for carrying out the steps of claim1, when said program product is run on a processor-based device,communications device, a mobile phone, mobile station, or a subscriberterminal of a radio communications network.
 16. A computer data signalembodied in a carrier wave and representing instructions, which whenexecuted by a processor cause the steps of claim 1 to be carried out.17. A communications device enabled for remotely changing operatingcharacteristics of the communications device selected for signaling anincoming message or call to a user, comprising: a RF-portion (11) forreceiving control data via an air interface; output means (14, 17 18)adjustable in accordance with operating characteristics; and a centralprocessing unit (12) operable with a profile switching application,which is adapted to read the control data to change a group of operatingcharacteristics of the communications device (MS2) in accordance withthe transmitted control data; and to signal an incoming message or callin accordance with the operating characteristics set up in accordancewith the transmitted control data.
 18. A communications device enabledfor remotely changing operating characteristics of the communicationsdevice, comprising: a RF-portion (11) for receiving control data via anair interface; and a central processing unit (12) operable with aprofile switching application, which is adapted to read the control datato switch off the communications device (MS2) in accordance with switchoff data included in the received control data after checking whether ornot switching off has to be allowed by means of checking a password.